I have been an amateur radio operator since April 1983 when I was a junior in high school. At that time I was KA5QNB as a Novice, Technician, and General class operator. In 1989 after getting married to KE5APB I joined the Air Force and upgraded to General class at that time so I would have a means to communicate with home while being stationed in remote places. After four years of being in the Air Force moving to Tucson, AZ, RAF Bentwaters, England, then back to Luke AFB, in Phoenix, Arizona I requested a call sign change to reflect my Arizona status in 1993. I was awarded the new and terrible call of KB7ZCO. That call sign was awful as I had to spell it phonetically every time because no one could understand it. After leaving Phoenix, AZ, I was moved to Eielson AFB, near Fairbanks, AK in 1995, then to Dyess AFB, in Abilene, TX in 1998.

In 1999 I came back to Oklahoma City, my home, and separated from active duty Air Force. I was hired at Tinker AFB as a civilian and work as an Equipment Specialist (ES) on KC-135 aircraft after graduating college. In 2001 it was brought to my attention that my dad’s original call sign was available. I requested a call sign change and was granted his original call sign of K5GLH (Golf Lima Hotel). My dad had abandoned that call sign in 1979 when he upgraded to Extra class license. He was my inspiration to become an amateur radio operator as he was licensed before I was born. The call sign K5GLH had a special meaning to me because I remember him spending hours calling “CQ CQ CQ from Kilo Five Golf Lima Hotel” when I was a child. He now holds the call sign W5QO.

I upgraded to Extra class in 2004 just because I thought after 20 years I should have progressed to that point. My wife became an amateur radio operator in 2004 and that was a proud moment as well. Though licensed since 1983, I have not been as active on the air as I would like because the first ten to fifteen years, I could barely afford the equipment along with the Air Force restrictions with antennas on military bases. Now we reside in Del City, a suburb of Oklahoma City near Tinker AFB. I am now the President and founder of the Del City Amateur Radio Club (W5DEL) consisting of two repeaters with IRLP/Echolink nodes, 145.25 – PL 103.5, and 443.3 + PL 162.2. The 443.3’s IRLP node is an affiliated WIN System node. For more information on this, just QRZ our club call at W5DEL. My true love hobby is computers and ham radio is fun because it can be used with computers. I obtained my first computer in 1983, the same year I got my ham radio license.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my profile. It is a little long winded but hopefully interesting.

Paul, K5GLH